Aiden Roberts
Aiden Roberts (otherwise known as both Draven Ziggurst and The Destroyer) is a former Structural Engineer hailing from Ioras, Dalania, and member of The Outlaws. Aiden is well known for his destructive Shockwave power - which allows him to unleash brutal blasts of energy, with often destructive consequences. Personality The events leading to Aiden joining the Outlaws left him paranoid and highly isolative, spending most of his time in Devil's Crag in total solitude. Despite usually being level headed, Aiden can be highly impulsive when angered, often placing himself and others into extreme danger without even considering the consequences. Aiden has become withdrawn over time, and is often very sullen - both in appearance and personality - however, he revels in the heat of battle, often finding joy in the destruction or in evading things that would otherwise kill him. In the later stages of his life, Aiden grappled with guilt and self-loathing about the things that he had done. While he managed to keep his feelings mostly hidden from the others, in the end, this guilt would ultimately get the better of him. Before The Outlaws Aiden qualified as a structural engineer at the Calrydian University of the Sciences at the age of 23, and in the six years between then and the "incident " held a number of jobs working for contractors across Dalania, including (amongst many others) the Hangar within which The Leviathan Project was built. Everything seemed to have slotted perfectly together for Aiden - successful job, loving girlfriend and a brand new house for them to make their own, but nothing ever works out that well. When Aiden's partner - Christina - was shot dead in a drive by shooting, a number of nearby witnesses gave descriptions of a man with short grey blonde / brown hair and glasses, the local law enforcement immediately focused all attention upon the innocent Aiden. Christina had in fact, been shot by a man by the name of Draven Ziggurst, a small time member of one of the only criminal gangs in Dalania - The Viceroys. Uncertain as to what was happening, Aiden returned to the place where he had grown up, only to find an unpleasant truth - the man who had once been his closest friend had used Aiden's identity for every part of his criminal career, essentially framing Aiden for every crime he had ever comitted. Shaken and repulsed by this revelation, Aiden made a decision - he would leave everything behind, and run under the name of the man who had taken his world from him, knowing that his return would bring all the momentum he built up back with him. World Breaker During the entirety of both World Breaker and the subsequent Hive campaigns, Aiden was known to all - both ally and enemy as Draven Ziggurst. Beginnings Aiden (somehow) managed to evade Dalanian authorities and use a well-forged passport and got onto a plane which was stopping off in Calrydia before heading out the the New World. The plane crashed over the Blasted Lands during an electrical storm killing all onboard except a small group - Aiden, Jack , Melissa , Doc Johnson, Serenity , Misty and Juana. The group made their way into a cave system, where they encountered an odd structure (which they subsequently discoverd to be Ptomley's Gate) , as well as a suited supersoldier - the Sethian operative Thorn . After a breif fight, Thorn accidentally activated the gate, binding to it the survivors' souls and granting them unnatural powers as well as opening the pathway to the Outland. From there, the group were greeted by Sethos when he arrived to debreif his operative and were given a task - recover a man by the name of Dr Yedsem from Loveshack prison. Initially this seemed to go incredibly easily, until an unkown faction arrived intending to kill Dr Yedsem. The attackers failed to acheive their goal, and the Outlaws escaped with their lives, returning the scientist to Devil's Crag . Once they had arrived with the scientist, they discovered that he was, in fact, known otherwise as Dr Solomon Masher , the (mad) scientist who created both the Machine God and the Steel Tide . Additionally, Sethos told the group that they were now internationally wanted fugitives as a result. This led to them losing trust in the leader, and becoming ever more suspicious of him. While penned within Devil's Crag , Aiden spent almost all of his time in a self imposed solitary confinement, both as a coping measure and with the intent of avoiding giving away his true identity to the Lupaiain detective, Jack Watermaine. Escape from Devil's Crag The group grew ever more restless while in Devil's Crag as time dragged ever onward, the feeling that they were in fact prisoners ever growing. Desperate for any kind of answer to the situation, some of the group sought out Dr Masher , to see if he could provide them with answers. From their visit they learned their answers - Sethos feared a war between the nations of Arsinos and the Ceph, and worse, the World Breaker, and unkown entity of supposedly unimaginable power. To him, the Outlaws would serve as an ultimate final solution - their deaths would cause the collapse of Ptomley's Gate, and the desturction of Outland all together, and with it, both the Ceph and the World Breaker would. Sethos was ultimately waiting for the ideal moment to execute the Outlaws , sacrificing both them and all of Outland to protect the people of Arsinos. Additionally, Masher gave them two interesting pieces of information - Thorn was (unbeknownst to the young soldier) Masher's son, and that Sethos was not only the first of the Steel Tide to break free of the Machine God 's grasp, but a fragment of his own mind from when it had splintered during the creation of the Machine God - while it had been the effigy of his rage, Sethos was the embodiment of his guilt. Following this, Masher agreed to help the group escape. The Outlaws ' execution was interrupted (thannkfully before any of the group had died) by an unknown sniper, who shot Sethos in the face with an explosive round. The blast launched all nearby - the Outlaws , Sethos and Thorn - onto the Devil's Crag racetrack, where a fight broke out. The group survived and escaped, with Masher directing them to head into Outland, find the World Breaker , and, if it was real, stop the threat it posed to Arsinos. The infiltration of the Deadmines After wandering aimlessly for a few days, the Outlaws organised themselves towards a specific goal - inflitrate the Blacklight mine known as the Deadmines, in an attmpt to gather as much information as possible, about the Blacklight , the Ceph and indeed the World Breaker. The plan laid out was simple - the group would infiltrate the mines posing as a group of safety inspectors, and use the chance to gather as much information about both Blacklight and the Ceph as possible. Surprisingly - though with a little help from Jack 's influence - the disguise worked, and the group entered with little difficulty. Upon entering, Jack realised that both Ellen Hunter (the leader of the Ceph) and Flintlock (the Cephian Operative) were present, leading the group to split off, to allow them to cover ground a lot faster. While Jack and Serenity headed in to a Guard Outpost, Aiden and Anderson went into the mine itself. Inside, what they discovered shook the pair of them - the men and women working the mine had suffered such extreme psychological damage as a result of the Blacklight exposure that they could barely remember their own names, much less any information of value. Unfortunately, their investigating drew the attention of Flintlock, who attempted to apprehend the two. Unable to fight back effectively, they had no choice but to allow themselves to be taken deeper into the mine. As they were marched down a flight of stairs, Aiden realised truly how unstable the mines were, and decided to take an immense gamble. Shrugging off Flintlock's grip, Aiden threw a shockwave into the floor, effectively causing a minor earthquake. With Ellen Hunter in an office far below, Flintlock had little choice but to abandon his quarry to save her, allowing the two to escape. As the Outlaws tried to escape, they were confronted one final time by Flintlock, who was brutally killed by Serenity Vine, who dropped a shipping crate upon him. The group then kidnapped Ellen Hunter and escaped the chaos they had created. The attempted interrogation failed quickly, and Ellen was killed. Battle at Stonetalon The group decided to head on to Stonetalon, to steal a boat and then head on further towards one fo the most central Ceph structures. There, they encountered Thorn, sent by Sethos to assassinate them. The fight was brief, and brutal. Aiden had taken the Blacklight for a period, and the material fed into his anger. After Thorn very nearly killed Doc, Aiden let the anger take control, and while able to savagely attack Thorn, the barrage was not without consequence, and Thorn's return strike broke Aiden's lower leg. Destruction of the Citadel As the Outlaws rendezvoused with Solomon Masher, he revealed that he had found someone they needed to meet - an elderly woman in a cave, who offered both herbal tea and medicine. After drinking the tea, the Outlaws found themselves in a dream-like state, where the woman introduced herself as The Mother and explained that the World Breaker, Ruaumoko had not always been the destructive force he now was, this change apparently having occured following the last civilisations of Arsinos' use of nuclear weapons, and his later inprisonment of the Ceph. Hive No More Running Realising how likely it was that he would not survive the campaign against the forces of the Four Horsemen, Aiden decided to use the time he had to head for Dalania, in an attempt to avenge the death of his partner - Christina Kurtzman - and clear his name of her murder (which was what had lead to him being on the plane to the New World). His presence in Dalania was felt almost immediately, as one of his first actions was to take advantage of the chaos and panic following the exodus to Sarluka and destroy many of the safe houses that the Viceroys used. The brutal methods drew the attention of the Dalanian military who then brought in the Avengers. The Avengers were able to track Aiden, first to his hometown of Iorax, where he had stormed a block of flats, appearing in the "real" Draven's penthouse. The two argued heatedly, drawing the attention of the majority of the armed residents, and the recently arrived Avengers. Aiden escaped with Draven, fleeing towards Sarluka down the backroads that dotted the countryside. It was on these roads that the avengers got their first taste of the power the Outlaw had, as he easily tossed the otherwise immovable War Machine aside. The Avengers once again tracked the Outlaw, to a hangar in the industrial region of Sarluka. Railas Davion immediately recognised the place - this was the building which housed the Leviathan, and was supposed to be as secure as the Overseer's residence. Aiden however, did not break in - he had been one of the crew who had worked on the Leviathan, unfortunately, the biolock had not been updated after the construction had finished. It was not long until a fight broke out between Aiden and the Avengers, though this got worse as the remaining Viceroys had caught up. Instead of fleeing, Draven made one last fatal mistake - instead of fleeing, he took his chance to mock his former friend - or more, mock his choice of partner - for what would be one last time. Seared with rage, Aiden laid into Draven with his powers: first launching him across the hanger; then, striking him with a point-blank shockwave, shattering every bone inside his torso and leaving him to bleed to an agonizing death on the concrete hangar floor. Death In the climactic final battle against Isaac Masher in the Spire - within the heart of the House of Gold and Bones - Isaac tried in desperation to use Aiden as a human shield, grabbing him and backing against an opening into the Warp storm beneath, threatening that any attempt to kill him would kill Aiden with it. Having wrestled with the guilt he had felt for so long, Aiden made the choice instead of the group, driving himself backwards, throwing both Isaac and himself to their deaths in the storm. Relationships The Outlaws Jack Watermaine Morena Alton Melissa Anderson Old Doc Johnson Serenity Vine [Ramona|Juan[a Ramona]] The Dark Avengers Sodney Masher Cayden Masher Jim Moriarty The Leviathan Christina Kurtzman Draven Ziggurst Best friends as teenagers, Aiden and Draven made for quite an interesting double act - Draven has alway been both a "playboy" and charmer, while Aiden was an intelligent reasoner, with the two often using their 'gifts' to help the other. Despite his charming prowess, Draven told his friend that there was one girl who never noticed him - and that he made it his goal to "bang" her, as he put it many times. She left for university in Calrydia long before he ever got the chance, and Aiden (not knowing of the object of his friends desire) found himself rapidly forming a relationship with the woman - who would then become his fiance. With Aiden gone, Draven festered in the criminal underworld, becoming a far darker man than he had been. When his old friend returned, engaged to the woman after whom he had longed for for such a long time, Draven made a horrible choice - if he could not have her, no one could. Like that, he set the wheels into motion that would lead to his friend being on a plane ride over the New World. The two had started out as friends, but it was with utter hatred that Aiden ended Draven's life, letting him bleed out slowly and painfully - as his fiance had done months earlier. Powers Equipment Aiden has only one piece of consistent gear - a .375 magnum revolver which used to belong to his former friend, Draven Ziggurst. It is all but certain that this is the gun with which Christina was killed and Aiden carries it with him as a memorial to her and as an insult to the man who took her from him. Trivia *Without realising, the shockwave that Adien released into the Deadmines lead to the creation of the Blacklight Flu - the immensely dangerous airborne and waterborne virus that has claimed several thousand - estimated to even be up to one million - lives in Outland. *Following his sacrifice in Hive - in which the communication chip in his head exploded - Aiden had to have a segment of his skull rebuilt with a Carbon-Titanium alloy. While the skin is beginning to regrow around it (and with it, hair), the area is incredily irritating, leaving Aiden frequently scratching the edges. This also threw his capbilities somewhat out, leading him to be slightly unreliable. Category:Outlaws Category:People Category:Arsinos